The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a method of producing an electrode support for a spark plug, and more specifically to a method of producing a spark gap for an electrode support of a spark plug using sacrificial material.
Spark plugs include an electrode chip located at an end of a center electrode. A separate chip is also located on an end of a side or ground electrode. An air or spark gap is located between the chip positioned on the center electrode and the chip positioned on the ground electrode. In one approach, the spark plug is manufactured by welding a single chip to both the center electrode and the ground electrode. Then, the chip is machined to create the spark gap between the center electrode and the ground electrode. The chip is generally constructed from a precious or noble metal such as, for example, a platinum based alloy. Noble and precious metals usually have a relatively high cost.
Spark plugs for applications such as, for example, industrial engines generally require precision machining and adjustment in order to create the parallelism and clearance needed in the spark gap. Machining the air gap results in a precise and substantially parallel gap. However, machining also results in a significant amount of noble or precious metal being wasted.